1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates to a holiday light storage and carrying device, and more specifically to one for electrical lights and cords, especially holiday decorative lights. The holiday light storage and carrying device also simultaneously provides for cylindrical, multi-tiered display of other objects.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The storage and transport of holiday lights and cords has been a troublesome problem for as long as people have pursued the installation, removal, and storage of the same. What is needed in the field of holiday light storage and carrying devices for decorative lights and the like is an apparatus that is user-friendly, direct, and inexpensive to produce and sell. The proper apparatus should also offer safety in that it should have no sharp edges or the like, so that children may also be involved without worry of injury. It should have no small, removable parts that may endanger children or pets. The apparatus should be lightweight, easily used, and easily stored. Its base should be of a design that allows for stability when lights are removed, stability such that a single user or even a single hand can wrap or unwrap strands. Additionally, the apparatus should have means for separating various strands so that selective storage and removal is easily provided.
A means for anchoring plugs should also be provided, as should a carrying handle for the entire apparatus. Further, an ideal holiday light storage and carrying device should have removable dividers for convenience of separation, reduction in size, or combination of strands. Removable divisions should also provide for other uses. Specifically, an ideal device should lend itself to multiple uses and not be confined to holding cords or light strands. The device should enable attractive coloring, as its primary use may be during festive times and occasions.
Finally, the apparatus should invite usage in the home or in business. All of these features should be available in a design providing for extremely lost cost in manufacturing and sales.
Decorative lights and electrical cord storage and carrying have long been a bane of customer use. Even from manufacturers packaging methods, storage has always been difficult for consumers. Whether for holidays or festive occasions, retrieval from storage, removal from containers, and re-packaging and storing can all be aggravating if not nearly impossible for some. Original packaging has typically been in cardboard and is not designed for easy, repeated use.
Others have, in prior art, offered various attempts at solving this problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,619 to Garis discloses a light string carrier for holding string lights wrapped about a slotted rectangular interior member. Lights are typically sold wrapped on such a lattice. Such lattice designs are not user-friendly and require effort and time to install and remove light strands. Lattice design is totally omitted from the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,339 to Dobson discloses a box with removable panels around which lights can wrap. This same lattice type design, though, is again not very conducive to ease of use. Two hands and sometimes more are required to manipulate this means, and lights must be arranged throughout the lattice.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,945 to Doyle discloses a holiday light storage device that is fairly elaborate in its means for adjustment for varied light spacing along an electrical cord. Again, it is device that requires significant effort for correct usage and is more elaborate than many users may desire.
The above examples and more exist in which manufacturing and uses are involved procedures. In addition, they largely mimic standard lattice, light cord containment and, as such, are what most consumers seek to avoid. The very nature of their complexity also must increase manufacturing costs, thereby elevating sales price. They also do not perform other functions. For example, these devices do not lend themselves to rope or cord storage, nor do they double for any form of display for other items.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective and particular objects and requirements, they do not describe a holiday light storage and carrying device that provides for the advantages of the present invention.
What is needed in the field of holiday light storage and carrying devices for decorative lights and the like is an apparatus that is user-friendly, direct, and inexpensive to produce and sell. The proper apparatus should also offer safety in that it should have no sharp edges or the like, so that children may also be involved without worry of injury. It should have no small, removable parts that may endanger children or pets. The apparatus should be lightweight, easily used, and easily stored. Its base should be of a design that allows for stability when lights are removed, stability such that a single user or even a single hand can wrap or unwrap strands. Additionally, the apparatus should have means for separating various strands so that selective storage and removal is easily provided.
A means for anchoring plugs should also be provided, as should a carrying handle for the entire apparatus. Further, an ideal holiday light storage and carrying device should have removable dividers for convenience of separation, reduction in size, or combination of strands. Removable divisions should also provide for other uses. Specifically, an ideal device should lend itself to multiple uses and not be simply confined to holding cords or light strands. The device should enable attractive coloring, as its primary use may be during festive times and occasions. Finally, the apparatus should invite usage in the home or in business. All of these features should be available in a design providing for extremely lost cost in manufacturing and sales.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved holiday light storage and carrying device, particularly one for decorative light strands and lights cords and the like. In this respect, the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art. In doing so it provides for an apparatus primarily designed for the storage and carrying of decorative lights, light cords, and the like that while also providing for alternative and combined functions.